The Abilene reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1887-01-06
REPEALED AT LAST.
The psnure-ofOmce Act, One of the Re
mains of Republican Abuses, Stricken
from the Statute Books.

WHICH mas extended over a perlOu OF
nearly twenty years. Under that law
the power of removal was taken from
the President and lodged in the Senate,
and though the act has not been at all
times enforced it has served at inter-
walls as refuge for the feudal lords of
the Senate when they saw fit to set
themselves up as a superior to the
Chief Magistrate.
This act was passed in 1867 by a
Congress containing a Republican ma
designed to keep in Office the Repub
licans of whom Andrew Johnson
sought to rid himself. Johnson
break with his party, which had hardly
vet become warm in the offices, pre-
cipitated a factional quarrel of uneX-
ampled bitterness. His policy was not
the policy of the great party chiefs who
not long before had doubted the wis
dom of re-electing Lincoln, lest he. too,
might develop ideas not in harmony
with those of the more extreme
members of his party, and to pre-
vent his carrying it out all the en-
ergies of the organization were direct
ed. The possession of the offices being
as important matter in the eStima-
ton of the various leaders as any other,
they passed the Tenure-of-Ofiice act in
1867, for the purpose of depriving the
President of the power of making
changes in offices without the consent
of the Senate. As it stood originally
this act practically took from the Pres
ident his constitutional powers and
lodged them in the Senate. Without
its consent he could not even remove
an official who was incompetent, cor
rupt or neglectful. Except by its per-
mission he could not change his own
Cabinet. 1t was intended to shackle
an executive officer who could not 9TH
erwise he controlled. If he would not
obey the wishes of the party which had
elected him that party, having absO-
Lutte control of both branches of Con-
gress, would deprive him of the ability
TO execute the office which had been
conferred upon him. Mr.. johnson
vetoed the act, but it became a law by
the twO-thirds vote of partisan Con-
gress, and thus the usurpation began.
For the violation of this law Mr.
Johnson was impeached, and in its
support great party, mindful only of
partisan advantage and the spoils of
office, fixed in American history page
as dark rs any that is to be found there.
But for. the removal by Mr.. johnson of
Secretary of War Stanton and the APP
pointment of General Lorenzo Thomas
as Secretary ad interim it is not likely
that the impeachment proceedings
would have been undertaken. Every
thing else depended upon the mainte-
nance of these charges, and rs they
failed all else failed. The fury
of party-might be depended upon
TO pass laws overriding the con-
stitution and degrading the Pres
idential Office to the level CT
Senatorial appendage, but when It was
proposed as 4 penalty for the violation
of such laws to depose the President
and put in his place ehieftain who
could have 10 legal right TO the place
there was revolt on the part of several
Senators of conscience and ability, and !
the country was spared the browning
infamy of witnessing the disposition of |
a Chief Magistrate whose principal |
Offense had been the observance of his |
oath to support the constitution and |
transmit his office unimpaired to his
successors.
Immediately on the Inauguration of
General Grant the party necessity of n |
Tenure-of-Office act disappeared. Both
houses of Congress were Republican,
as was the Executive Department, and |
one of the first acts of the House of |
Representatives was to pass bill re-
pealing the laws which had been passed !
for the purpose of Stacking johnson. |
But the Senate, having tasted blood, |
was not prepared thus early to relin-
quish the power which it had usurped. |
1t failed to act on the House bill. In |
his first message President Grant, who |
in Johnson's day had supported the
Tenure-of-Office bill, attacked it in I'M
measured terms, saying that cit was
incompatible with a faithful and eff
cient administration of the Govern
ment." Later on the House once
again passed bill repeating the act,
this time voting more than six to one
in favor of its annulment. The Senate
again refused to concur. 1t had gained |
tho rIpnaI. boD1 of thn Pt-aSidaDf md -
was not willing to retreat from its posi-
ton. Forty years before. this Web
ster, Clay and Calhoun had fought
the same battle with Andrew
jackson and had failed The
gained as against johnson
was not to be abandoned without a
struggle. The law might be permitted
TO fall into allegiance during the adj
of a friendly President.
but it was argued that it should stand
and be revived as occasion might war
rant. Under it Senators We're made
the dictators of Federal patronage.
The President was helpless, unless he
could make sure of their support. Gen
eral Grant had a way of dealing with
men which soon convinced some men,
bers of the Senate that it would be
more profitable to them to fall in with
him than to undertake to fight him.
and. after some eaHcusing, the Senate,
"a 1869, passed a bin so amending the
Tenure-of-Office act as to repeal the
section against which most complaint